Almasi & So Tied for First After Three Rounds at Capablanca Memorial

The Capablanca Memorial is underway in Havana, Cuba and after three rounds GMs Zoltan Almasi of Hungary and Wesley So of the Philippines are in shared first place in the Elite Group. They have both scored one win and two draws. The tournament is held for the 49th time.

The 2014 Capablanca Memorial is again taking place at the Habana Riviera hotel, located on the famous Malecón. The broad esplanade, roadway and seawall along the coast in Havana is still the iconic place where tourists stroll, fishermen cast their lures and prostitutes find their clients.

Already in the first round the two top seeds of the Elite Group faced each other: five times winner Vassily Ivanchuk and Cuba's number one (and world #10) Leinier Dominguez. The Ukrainian went for the Open variation of the Ruy Lopez but Dominguez is too much of a theoretician to be surprised by something like that. He kept the advantage well into the endgame, but Ivanchuk didn't make any big mistakes.

So vs Bruzon and Vallejo vs Almasi were also undecided, and in the second round two more games ended in draws: Almasi-Dominguez and Bruzon-Ivanchuk. Wesley grabbed the lead with a win over Paco Vallejo in a Berlin Endgame. It seems that the Spanish GM was close to draw just before the end.

Wesley So | Photo María del Carmen Ramón / Cubahora

In the third round there were again two (fighting) draws: Vallejo-Bruzon, and Dominguez-So. The game of the day was Ivanchuk-Almasi where the Ukrainian went for an interesting, long-term sacrifice which in fact had been played once before. Ivanchuk played the attack better than Zelcic in 2001, but in the end the sac is probably not correct.But it took amazing defensive skills by Almasi to prove it! The Hungarian thus caught So in first place.

It was only Ivanchuk's third loss in all Capablanca Memorials together (+28 –3 =33)!

After an early loss, can Chuky do it again in Havana? | Photo María del Carmen Ramón / Cubahora

Capablanca Memorial 2014 | Round 3 Standings

#

Name

Rtg

Perf

1

2

3

4

5

6

Pts

SB

1

So,Wesley

2731

2837

½

½

1

2.0/3

2.50

2

Almasi,Zoltan

2693

2860

½

½

1

2.0/3

2.25

3

Dominguez Perez,Leinier

2768

2726

½

½

½

1.5/3

2.50

4

Bruzon Batista,Lazaro

2682

2728

½

½

½

1.5/3

2.00

5

Vallejo Pons,Francisco

2700

2582

0

½

½

1.0/3

1.75

6

Ivanchuk,Vassily

2753

2594

0

½

½

1.0/3

1.50

Each day the rounds start at 3pm local time (3 pm Eastern, noon Pacific, 9pm Central European). You can follow the games live here. Round reports in Spanish can be found at columnadeportiva.

No not me. I'm a filipino but I do not agree about my countrymens way of admiration. Crying PROUD about a particulary race sounds Racist to me that's why that annoying "Proud to be Filipino" phrase provokes flames in every forum on the net. Race should NOT matter and for that I have a better idea to my fellow pinoys. MABUHAY PILIPINAS! sounds less harmful.

Lawrence said (on the air during Shamkir) that he had hopes of getting his third (I think it was) GM Norm at the Capablanca. We can't find any results on the web, making us wonder if the CIA is jamming Cuban websites.

lenier beat vallejo today 5/11/14 and has the lead shared with almasi, chucky draw, I noticed that lenier is #10 and crossed 2770 for the very first time in his carrer. at his 30+ Is he really getting better or it is just inflation in the ratings?

I guess this doesn't matter much, but just to clarify the discussion in the thread, under way is written as two words in the adverb form in both US English and British English. You might be able to find a dictionary that disagrees, but Webster's unabridged (or Merriam-Webster) is the preferred dictionary for most major editorial styles in the US (e.g., APA, Chicago, MLA, AMA), and I believe Oxford is the standard in BrE.

Very nice Peter. Thx! Still pulling for Chucky! Not convinced in Round 3, as neither was Almasi :), about 14.Nf6+. I think the immediate 17...d5 and later 22...Be3! & 23...c5 saved the day, for the inevitable long diagonal opening. One is left with the impression, as it really appears Almasi calculated accurately having seen much of this far in advance, ...thus allowing 24...Rxe7 25. fxe7+ Bd4 interposition. One can also feel that Chucky had experienced success with this (perhaps informally, OTB) and played it with confidence. That game exhibits a wonderful "fighting spirit of chess" of Capablanca's (pre-engine) day, in both players! Fun stuff! Thx Peter!

Ivanchuk got too ambitious in the third round game. Almasi defended the attack precisely and it was clear that it was either make or break for Wassily. At least in the computer it was unsound from the beginning. It would be interesting to know if Almasi got really worried or found the correct defence with relative ease.

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